Elastic Hologram Can Switch Images When Stretched

New elastic holograms can switch the images they display as they get stretched, finds a new study by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania. These holograms could have applications in virtual reality, flat-panel displays, and optical communications, researchers say.

Conventional holograms are photographs that, when illuminated, essentially turn into 2D windows looking at 3D scenes. The pixels of each hologram scatter light waves falling onto them, making the light waves interact with each other to generate an image with the illusion of depth.

Penn scientists in Philadelphia had previously created holograms made of gold rods only nanometers or billionths of a meter large embedded within elastic films of silicone rubber. These new holograms are a kind of metasurface, which manipulate light using structures smaller than wavelengths of light.